Brideprice.com by Eve Francis

Brideprice.com
by Eve Francis
Pages: unknown - short story
Publish Date: April 19 2017
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Series: --

Review
Rating: 3.88
Read: March 24 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*

Strangely I had a large number of thoughts while reading this book. Things like ‘unreliable narrator’, and ‘what makes someone a villain’ in a story, people’s ‘obsession for other cultures’, and the like. There’s a certain amount of unreliable narration going on here, along with borderline ‘obsessive stalker like symptoms’.

Well, as the reader finds out early on – Krystal and Brianna are roommates and both are graduate students. I believe both of them are somewhere around 27 years of age. Brianna is obsessed with Star Wars, while Krystal is obsessed with Indian culture – specifically Hindi culture. Krystal is so obsessed with it that she’s getting a degree in it (well, ‘Hindi Translation’ and . . . something else).

Where’d this obsession come from? Well, Brianna’s obsession was never explained, while Krystal’s is based on falling in love with the next door neighbor, Gita, who was from India (family was, I think the parents immigrated to Canada before the kids were born, but unsure; actually, now that I think about it, I think that story I’m basing that idea off of is about the uncle and his wife, not Gita’s parents).

The description seemed to imply that the story would be told in at least two waves, when Gita moved in, and then ten years later. Except, the story begins when Krystal is around 27, and learns that Gita is getting married . . . to a man. And, so, Krystal freaks out (not in the way that a flashback to that time occurs, no, everything is mostly in ‘the present’, with stories told of what had occurred in the past – told to others like to Brianna). Apparently Gita 1) hated the mere idea of arranged marriages (and apparently this will be an arranged marriage); 2) had given the impression, based on a promise, that they, Gita and Krystal, will love each other forever.

1 & 2 are part of where that unreliable narrator comes in. Probably just skip this spoiler, if you haven’t read the story; and if you have read the story, then you already know what could go here As evidence that Gita hated arranged marriages, Krystal points to a blog that Gita had put up – one with stories about how much she hates the idea. And stuff. Plus stories. Lots of stories. Including one about love and stuff, about how she might have fallen off a roof and injured herself but she also found love – and Krystal spends a lot of time rereading the lines that note that love. That had been found. On a particular occasion. the blog put up under the name of Gita . . . . was actually written by Krystal. This and other things lead me to that ‘obsessive stalker’ comment .

Strangely, despite certain things that get revealed, I did end up rather enjoying the short story. I knew, mostly, how everything would unfold based on the story description, despite being somewhat misleading in certain ways, it still lead me to ‘know’ how things would unfold.

Enjoyable story. And I am not left hanging, wanting more. For ‘reasons’, I’m sure others would want a little more here or there (like graphic stuff), but it worked for me.

Rating: 3.88

Publication: Story will be available for purchase, if I’m reading things correctly, April 19 2017

And now, a music video – or what I had written in the review box before I even had access to the story – based entirely on ‘Desi girl’. I recommend watching a few videos like the one I link below before reading the story – not in any way required or needed to understand the story, just that it would put you in the right mood. Or something like that.

Seeing: "The self-declared "Desi girl extraordinaire" lead me to Dostana - Desi Girl Video | Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek, John, which in turn lead me to the thought 'gorgeous woman, two guys competing over her' and before they actually started dancing with each other and almost kissing each other, my thoughts were impure. I wanted to see them get together. This might be the first time I 'lusted' after two men getting together in a 'real life' setting (as opposed to textual). Bah, go away to that third guy, gorgeous woman, let see more of these two men.

I had an idea, vague, tentative, about what 'Desi girl' might mean. This is why I looked it up, and ran across that video. I've read this author before; this story involves both mixing of cultures and an interesting premise, so I decided to read it.

March 24 2017